


Let This Love Go

by signalbeam



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Can't cook, Community: badbadbathhouse, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Homosexuality, Infidelity, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-26
Updated: 2009-09-26
Packaged: 2017-10-18 09:33:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/signalbeam/pseuds/signalbeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chie and Yosuke are together because it was inevitable and perfectly natural. Things are great! Kind of. Too bad they're both gay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let This Love Go

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the badbadbathhouse prompt: _Might I have Yosuke and Chie together in a relationship (preferably one that's already been going on for a while -- maybe even a year) because when all of their friends start pairing off with people (either within the group or not), they're the only two left. Their friends start playfully hinting that they're perfect for each other, their parents start asking if they're dating yet, so eventually they just start seeing each other. Thing is, Yosuke is gay and Chie is a lesbian. They both are aware of that and while they do love each other in their own way and work their hardest to convince the other (not to mention the rest of their friends) that it's that kind of love, it's just not._

Yosuke should’ve known things wouldn’t work out when he caught Chie making out with a girl in the university’s parking lot.

He had thought it might be a nice idea to surprise Chie by picking her up from class. Just to be a nice boyfriend, because he _was_ a nice boyfriend, damn it. Sure, they fought and argued sometimes, but they were dating. Had been dating since their freshman year in college. It wasn’t as though they had an intimacy freeze-out, and, well, she was always talking about how he needed to put more effort into the relationship. So he went to pick her up, and _what the fuck_ , there she was kissing this one girl on the mouth. It had that look of being a second time, or a third, or a ten thousandth kiss—no, fuck, who gave a shit about the number? It wasn’t a first time thing, or a one-time thing or a friendly, platonic kiss, it was a, “I’m trying to eat your face, discreetly” kiss, with all the awkward passion that came with kissing in a public place.

Yosuke didn’t know what to say, except that he wanted to impale himself on something. Worst part of it was that he couldn’t even be properly angry at Chie, because he was seeing one of his senpai at work on the side. His really, really manly, and decidedly-not-female senpai.

The only thing he could think was, “Goddamn, so _that’s_ why.”

 

\---

 

He got a call from Chie around dinner, almost an hour and a half after Yosuke caught her in the parking lot with that girl. He wondered, idly, what Chie had done in the time between the parking lot and the car, and decided he’d rather not know. He didn’t give a crap, either.

“Heeey,” she said. “Just got out of class.”

No you didn’t, Yosuke wanted to say, but it wasn’t as though either of them were totally guilt-free here. He decided to let it go. “You want to come over for dinner or something?” he said. “My roommate’s visiting his folks, so he’s definitely not going to bust in on us halfway through or something.”

“What are you making?”

“Pasta.”

“Again?”

“Well, considering you can’t even boil water without burning a pot, I don’t see what you’re complaining about.”

“That’s not it, Yosuke,” said Chie, and then blew air, sharply, through her teeth. “Whatever,” she said. “I’m coming over.”

“Want me to pick you up?”

“Don’t worry about it. Our dorms are five minutes away by bike.”

“But it’s winter. Aren’t you going to be cold?”

“It’s fine.”

“But—”

“It’s _fine_ ,” she said, this time with an edge in her voice that would, if he wasn’t careful, lead to a screaming argument.

“All right, all right. Don’t come crying to me when your ovaries freeze.”

There was a long, awkward pause, where they were both on the phone, and knew what they ought to be saying, but couldn’t bring themselves to actually say.

That was the entire problem with their relationship, wasn’t it? They started dating because people thought that they should be dating. Oh, you two argue all the time, people said. Like an old married couple or something. And, well, they were going to the same college, so why not? Everyone else was a good hour away by train, and they liked each other’s company. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe a little less so than they used to.

And then there was the entire infidelity thing. He hadn’t felt too guilty about cheating on Chie until he found out that she was doing the same to him. The entire thing made no _sense_ : he should’ve started feeling guilty long, long before this. Jumping his coworker at the coffee shop? Totally fine with him, just as long as he didn’t know that Chie was snogging her classmates in the parking lot.

“So,” said Chie finally, “I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah,” Yosuke said. “Later.”

 

\---

 

He couldn’t stop staring at Chie. Not in the, “I like girls, you’re kind of hot, hey, boobs!” way, but more in the way of, “my god. Who _are_ you?”

He didn’t know her. He didn’t think she’d be the type to cheat on him. Hell, he didn’t think that she was the type to on him with another _girl_. Completely unexplainable. Completely fucking weird. Was he her beard? No, wait: was _she_ the beard? No, that couldn’t be it. He _liked_ her. He liked her curves and her boobs and, well, sex with her, yeah, it was fine. Great, even. Maybe.

He couldn’t remember. Was it good? Sure, he came a lot, but it wasn’t really as though he ever wanted to bone her as much as he wanted to jump into Yokokawa’s pants. It was almost as though the entire world had flipped upside down, and he was walking on the ceiling and the carpet was hanging above his head.

“Hey,” Yosuke said as they did the dishes. “How’s Yukiko-san?”

“What?”

“Just wanted to know,” he said with a shrug. “I mean, you had a thing for her back in high school didn’t you?”

“Wh…” Chie’s jaw dropped. Then she said, “God, Yosuke, what’s _wrong_ with you?”

“Well—”

“I mean, sure, she’s—you know.” _Smoking hot_ , Yosuke filled in for her. Chie’s face was reddening. Well, good. The girl was freaking queer.

“I mean, if you still like her, I’m totally cool with that,” he said. For good measure, he winked.

“Are you thinking of a threesome? Because, uh, no. She’s just been engaged, you know?”

“Really?”

“Business,” Chie said, with the kind of indifference that was straining to keep itself together. Yosuke could see right through it. “I mean, she… you know. The Inn and stuff. She really wants to keep it going.”

“Uh-huh,” Yosuke said. “Too bad for you, huh.”

The dishes clattered together. “I swear, Yosuke, sometimes I wonder if your brain’s gotten rusty, since you never seem to use it,” Chie said. “So how’s Souji-kun?”

“Wh-what?”

“You know, how is he doing and stuff? Because he e-mails me and stuff, but I’m sure he tells you a lot of other things, since the two of you are _partners_.”

“It isn’t like that!” Yosuke said quickly. He nearly dropped a knife on his foot, but caught it just in time.

“Well, who knows,” Chie said with a shrug. “I mean, I gotta admit, a threesome with you and Souji-kun? That’d be totally hot. But wait, I forgot: he has a girlfriend, doesn’t he? My bad.”

Yosuke couldn’t say anything. His mouth was frozen, somewhere between speech and silence. Yeah, Chie, that was real classy, real classy, what the _fuck_ , he didn’t know she could be that much of an asshole. He dried the last few dishes, and sat on the couch. When she sat next to him, he turned away from her, only for her to punch him, lightly, on the arm.

“Fuck off,” he said.

“Come on,” Chie said. “It’s not like you ever liked Souji-kun like that, anyway. What are you getting so worked up about?”

“Oh, geeze, I don’t know,” Yosuke said. “Is it because you’re a hyper-violent psycho?”

“You were the one who started it,” she said.

“Oh, yeah?”

Her fingers curled, slowly around his forearm, and slid down to his hand. They never held hands, he realized; and even now, she did not twine their fingers together.

“Hey,” she said, and leaned in and covered his mouth with his. “Hey, respond a little.”

“Okay,” he said. He pulled into her, a little closer. Brought his hand to the back of her head. Ran semi-long hair through his fingers. She was growing it out, centimeter by centimeter, even as her clothes got even more boyish. Maybe she was doing it for someone else. She sure as hell wasn’t doing it for _him_.

He wondered if she ever thought about his new stubble, the one Yokokawa said made him look sexy. He wondered if she had ever gone to pick him up from the coffee place, and caught him and Yokokawa kissing in the back. Maybe she had, because like hell she made those digs against him without meaning _something_ behind them.

“Raise your arms,” he said, and he pulled her shirt off of her torso. She shivered in the cold air, and pressed closer to him. He undid his fly, and wiggled out of his pants, supporting her with one hand, and gripping his cock with the other.

“You never do any foreplay,” she complained. “I mean, you’re always all ‘put it in!’”

“Oh, come on,” he said, grinning as she relieved herself of her pants and panties. “You like it.”

He hoped she hadn’t heard the ‘don’t you?’ at the end of his question.

 

\---

 

Okay. So the sex wasn’t that great. He didn’t know if it was his fault or hers. He couldn’t _read_ her, that was the problem. That was why doing guys was easier, he thought with a scowl. He didn’t have to go, “Wait, did you just come or not?” with guys. It was obvious. And then there wasn’t all this random _things_ girls had. Boobs. What was he supposed to _do_ with them, they were right in front of his face, and Chie was always going, “Come on, Yosuke, use your hands for once.” Well, what was he supposed to be using his hands for?

And for all he knew, she might hate his cock. Oh, what the fuck, he didn’t know. He didn’t mind eating pussy, but she was all, “No, wait, quit that, you’re going to give me beard burn." He wound up poking a finger into her and going, “Okay, is that good?” until she went, “No, ugh, stop, just, stop.”

Why did sex with her have to be such a freaking joke? She was hot. She was seriously hot. He knew she was hot because, well, she was a girl, wasn’t she?

No, fuck, he didn’t know. He knew she was hot because she was hot, which was, as Naoto might put it, really freaking illogical. He knew girls were hot because people told him they were, and, yeah, he was straight, wasn’t he? No, dumbfuck, he wasn’t. Not totally. Or maybe not ever.

But he liked Chie. Even if most girls were hot in the sense of, “yeah, they’re fine,” she was _really_ fine. And even if she had the worst personality ever, he liked that. She was weirdly reliable, even if she really shouldn’t be, and she was… thoughtful. And nice, when she wasn’t abusive and crazy. And stupidly conscientious, because she was doing homework in bed, the blanket wrapped up and tangled around her waist.

“I can’t believe you’re doing homework in bed,” said Yosuke.

“Well,” she said, matter-of-factly, “what else am I supposed to do?”

 

\---

 

Yokokawa gave Yosuke an ultimatum: me or your girlfriend.

“I don’t want to be the other man here,” said Yokokawa when their shift ended, crossing his arms over his chest. “Me or her.”

Yosuke sat on a crate and said, “Come on, man.”

“Don’t try to deflect this, Hanamura,” said Yokokawa. “You have to give me an answer. I’m tired of sneaking around. All of my friends are laughing at me. They say you’re a total closet case, you know that?”

Closet case. Yeah, that wasn’t too far from the truth. Too chickenshit to do anything except see some guy on the side, while seeing a girl who was probably going to drape a rainbow flag around her shoulders and dump him.

“Come on, Yokokawa,” he said. “I mean, it’s not—”

“No, it isn’t,” said Yokokawa, and he actually seemed angry now. “You know what? Fuck you. Find some other guy to be your rent boy. You want to see me on the side? Well, I don’t want to be side dishes. You either see me, and me alone, or find some other guy to cheat on your girlfriend with.”

“You still want to bone me, though,” Yosuke said.

Yokokawa threw a punch, but it was as though his fist was moving in slow motion. Yosuke had dodged attacks from giant wheels that zoomed around him in circles, so fast he couldn’t even see. Compared to that, Yokokawa was a slug.

Yokokawa’s fist hit the wall. He looked at Yosuke with such lividness that Yosuke was actually afraid that the next punch might hit him. Yokokawa pulled away, instead.

“God, Hanamura,” said Yokokawa. “Why do you have to fuck up everything you touch?”

 

\---

 

He shaved the stubble, and went to a barbershop and dyed his hair light again. This time, he waited right by the door of Chie’s classroom, hugging close to the wall and scowling at anyone who dared to stare at him. She was taking some ethics course—It looks good for police officers to have it on the transcript, she said—and the class was _huge_. He couldn’t see her in the classroom, but she had to be there somewhere. It wasn’t like Chie skipped classes, ever. Or maybe she had in the past, and he never noticed. Just like he hadn’t noticed, apparently, a lot of things.

Class let out at the usual time, and students were spilling out the doors. Yosuke scanned the crowd for Chie. Maybe for that other woman, too, since they had the same class. Or at least, had classes in the same building.

He was jealous, even though he had no right to be. He spotted her exiting, and gave a terse little wave. Chie stopped dead in her tracks—she was holding hands, he noticed, with some other girl—and then narrowed her eyes. She whispered something to the girl next to her, and they parted with a too-long-lingering stare.

“What are you _doing_ here?” Chie said.

“Waiting for you,” he said. “You know. Like a good boyfriend. You’re always saying how I should do more stuff, right?”

“Oh, Yosuke,” she said, hugging him. “What happened?”

“ _Nothing_ ,” he said.

“I didn’t really mean it when I said you should do more,” she said. “I mean, we don’t really have the kind of relationship where we… do a lot of stuff for each other.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Not that I’m complaining. It’s just the way it is, you know?” With an arm lopped awkwardly over his shoulders, she led him back to her dorms, just a few minute’s walk away. “So, did you have some kind of break up or something?”

“ _You_ ’re my girlfriend, remember?” he said. “Geeze.”

“Not _that_ kind of break up,” she said. “God, Yosuke, I’m trying to be helpful here. What did you two fight about?”

“Nothing.”

“Uh-huh. Well, you always have a bad habit of sticking your foot in your mouth, so you probably pissed him off by saying something stupid, so the first step is to apologize for being an ass,” she said. “Yokokawa-kun’s a nice guy, you know. If you say it like you mean it, then he’ll forgive you.”

“ _Like_ I mean it?” Yosuke said flatly. “Geeze, thanks, Chie, for not doubting my sincerity.”

“Well,” said Chie with a shrug, “knowing you, you probably won’t mean it, anyway.”

He didn’t bother asking how she knew Yokokawa. They began kissing at the front of her dorm. By the time they got to her room, people were yelling, “Go get a room!” at them, but this wasn’t about being hot and bothered and horny. He felt like shit, and she could smell it off of him. And, well, Chie was good at taking care of people. It was part of what made her reliable.

He had to admit: he liked it when she took care of him.

She had a habit of playing with his chest, and Yosuke would have to be damn dumb to not know what she was imagining was on his chest when she swirled her tongue across the flat planes of his breasts, and tweaked his small, dark nipples.

“Hey,” Yosuke said. “ _Hey._ ”

“What?” Chie said.

“Let’s do it.”

“We weren’t already?” she said. She rolled her eyes. “See what I mean? Always about sticking it in. There’s a lot more—”

“Damn it, I don’t _care_ right now,” he whined. “C-can’t you, you at least suck me off if you’re going to just be a tease?”

“Oh, screw you,” she huffed. “Seriously, you know why you suck at having sex with girls? You don’t know what to do with your hands.” She peeled herself off of him, reaching over for the drawer where she kept the condoms. Without preamble, she tore off the wrapper, and rolled it down his cock.

She stared down at him, breathing shallowly. She lowered herself onto him slowly, the knuckles of her fingers pressing into his shoulders. When she took him about halfway, she raised herself back up, and then, with a wince, sank all the way onto him. He could feel her legs flexing and tensing, and, instinctively, put his hands on her thighs. Gripped them, really, because she didn’t really look that comfortable.

“Okay, okay, I get it,” he said. “Get off of me, your ‘ow, fuck’ face isn’t a turn on.”

She refused to budge; and, slowly, she loosened around him. She let out a little, sharp breath.

“That was dumb of me,” she said. And then, laughing, she said, “You’re still hard. What do you mean that I’m not a turn on for you?”

“I have a magical dick. Rock hard, whenever, wherever.”

“You perv.”

He raised a hand up around her head, and removed the elastic from her hair. Chie rested her head on his shoulder for a moment. Then, turning so her lips were almost on his ear, she said, “I’m sorry about Yokokawa-kun, Yosuke. Really.”

 

\---

 

When Yosuke woke up, he was still in Chie’s room. Chie’s roommate was sitting at her desk. Hearing the sheets rustle, she said, “Why can’t you hang a sock on the door like a normal person?”

“Sorry,” Yosuke said. “We were, you know, too busy doing other things.”

She turned her head around, and then blushed. She gathered up her books and stood up.

“Sorry,” she said. “I thought you were Satonaka.”

“So you would’ve stayed to talk if Chie woke up, but you run the second I do? Thanks.”

“Oh, well… you know. If you’re awake, you and Satonaka might start going at it again.”

“She’s not even awake,” Yosuke protested.

“Well, it’s not like that’s ever stopped _my_ boyfriend,” she said. She stuffed her notes into her backpack, and swung the door open. “Tell Satonaka to put up a sign or something next time.”

“Your boyfriend sounds like a creep,” Yosuke said, and Chie’s roommate laughed darkly. The door clicked closed. Yosuke looked down at Chie, and, carefully, brushed some of the hair away from her face.

 

\---

 

They went back to Yosuke’s dorms later. It was bigger, and a suite-style. Plus, there was a deadbolt, so it wasn’t as though someone could go in unless they wanted them to.

“We suck,” Yosuke said after Chie flubbed another explanation on multi-variable calculus. “We suck so hard.”

“Well, _you_ do,” Chie said, staring at her textbook with a befuddled sort of expression. “I totally got this until you went and confused me.”

“Ha, ha, ha. Well, you can’t explain math, so you can take that and jam it up your ass.” Yosuke tossed his book onto the couch, and said, “So, what’s her name?”

“My roommate’s? You know, it’s been three months, and you still don’t remember her name. One of these days, she’s going to get really—”

“Not her,” said Yosuke. “That _other_ girl. The one you’re cheating on me with.”

“What other girl?” Chie said.

“Come on, Chie. It’s not fair that you know Yokokawa, but I don’t know who the hell you’re screwing on the side,” he said. “I’ve seen you two making out in the parking lot in the back of the philosophy department, okay?”

“It’s—okay, it’s not…” she trailed off. “I mean…” She rested her head on her hands and said, “It’s one of the TA’s in the philosophy department. If you caught me in the parking lot, that is. There… might be someone else?”

“You’ve been _three_ -timing me?” Yosuke said, his jaw dropping. “With one of the _grad_ students?”

“No! Not really. I mean, we keep seeing each other on-and-off, and it’s kind of like having a series of one-night stands…”

“What the fuck.”

“It’s not like you’re much better,” she said. “Last month you invited me to your room while you were shagging this random… person. I could hear you over the phone.”

“It wasn’t a guy,” Yosuke said. Which was a lie. A really obvious one.

“Well, it’s not like we’re really that into them, anyway,” Chie said.

“Uh-huh,” said Yosuke. “Yeah.”

They sat in the room. The table between them grew and grew, until they were sitting on opposite ends of the country. He had to say something, he had to say _anything_ , but nothing was coming out.

Chie cleared her throat and said, “I love you.”

Yosuke shifted uncomfortably, and then said, "Yeah. Me too."

 

\---

 

“So,” said Yosuke to Souji, “it turns out that she’s screwing one of the TAs on the side.”

“Uh-huh,” said Souji over the phone. It sounded almost as though something was exploding in the background. Yosuke didn’t want to think too hard about it. Knowing Souji, he was probably crossing a street with a major car accident going on in the background.

“And there’s this other person, and it’s all so what. the. fuck. Seriously? Three-timing? I mean, at least I was only two-timing her, not going at it with three people at once.”

No wonder she was always bitching about his technique. Well, he was _so_ sorry that he didn’t have magical vagina fingers or whatever. Or giant boobs hanging off his chest.

“It sounds as though the two of you need a break from each other,” said Souji. “With all the cheating going on.”

“No way, man. She’s my girlfriend, you know?”

“It’s not healthy for either of you. If you’re both seeing other people, you should break up and let that be the end of it. Regardless of your friendship, if there’s no romantic—”

“No, fuck, you don’t get it,” Yosuke said. “If I break up her, that makes me a fucking queer, okay? I’m _not_ gay, I’m just—”

“Jumping on every attractive guy you find, and forgetting you have a girlfriend. I’ll say it again, Yosuke: this isn’t healthy for either of you. If you have any respect for her or yourself, break up with her and take some time away from each other.”

“I’m not, I, I—”

“If that’s what you really think, then that’s what you think,” said Souji.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Souji said, slowly and carefully, “that when this blows up in your face later, I’m going to stand back and say ‘I told you.’ I’ll have to tell Yukiko-san about this now. She’s going to be furious.”

“Wait, why?”

“Because when your friends do stupid things, then it’s wholly within your right to be angry,” Souji said tersely, and hung up.

 

\---

 

“We should break up or something,” Chie said during finals week.

“You’ve been talking to Yukiko-san, haven’t you,” Yosuke said.

“We talk all the time. She’s my best friend.”

“The best friend you want to bang into the ground?”

“I swear, one of these days I’m going to _kill you_.”

She looked almost ready to make good on that promise. Yosuke looked aside, a bit taken aback; and then he said, “Well, _I_ don’t want to break up. You?”

“No. Not really.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I didn’t mean anything by it. Chill out, Yosuke.”

“ _I_ should chill out? You’re the one who just said that we should break up!”

“Damn it, Yosuke! I told you, I didn’t mean anything by it! It was a slip of the tongue! God, don’t get all hysterical drama queen on me.”

“I’m not. A fucking. Queen.”

“That’s exactly what I mean. You always get all fussy about the most random things—”

“Dyke.”

Funny how he never seemed to be able to block her kicks. But instead of crumpling over like he normally did, he grabbed her by the arm and took her down with him, throwing her over him with her own momentum. Her hand grabbed his shirt as she flipped over, and something tore as she crashed onto the ground.

“Oh, damn,” he said. “My shirt.”

“Oh, _thanks_ ,” Chie said, picking herself up without any fanfare.

“It’s not like you ever ask _me_ if I’m all right when you hit me,” he said, tearing his shirt off. He sat on the couch, and then tossed the shirt onto the table. “Hey,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s… no,” she said, settling down next to him on the couch. “No, it’s fine.”

“Are we still… you know?” he said.

“Maybe,” she said.

He frowned. And then he said, “Yeah. Okay.”

He was fine with that.

 

\---

 

When it inevitably blew apart, Souji wound up crashing Yosuke’s dorm to make sure Yosuke didn’t do anything stupid like set his roommate on fire.

“I did tell you so,” Souji said.

“Fuck you,” Yosuke replied.

“All right, Yosuke.”

“I mean, damn it, I’m not—it’s just that it’s Chie, so I’m not…”

“Any kind of break up is hard,” Souji said. “Even if it’s not ‘that kind’ of break up.”

But it _was_ that kind of break up, only without being that kind of break up. He had never been crazy about Chie, not in the same way he had been crazy about the others (the… okay, his boyfriends, damn it, they were his boyfriends), but… damn it, he really had liked Chie, even if they weren’t—damn it, it was too hard to explain. It wasn’t love, it was… it was love, just not that kind of love. The love he kept for his friends, only a little stronger and more confusing.

“Anyway,” said Souji, “I say that you should stay out of relationships for a while. Both of you. And pick up an old hobby.”

“Oh, yeah? Like what?” he said.

Souji smiled, and said, “I had your parents mail your guitar over.”

“… Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“… Man.” Yosuke grinned. “You are the best friend ever.”

Souji smiled, pleased with himself, and said, “I know.”

 

\---

 

“Man, this isn’t awkward or anything,” Yosuke said, sitting with Chie and another girl in a small, and, quite frankly, too crowded, restaurant.

Chie was scowling at him. “If it’s so awkward, then why’d you sit _here_?”

“You know,” Yosuke said. “Sitting with old friends—”

“This is a date, okay,” she said. “Can’t you sit somewhere else?”

“Danananana, BATMAN! Can’t hear you,” Yosuke said cheerfully. He winked at Chie’s friend and said, “Hey there, lady. What’s your name?”

“ _You have a boyfriend, Yosuke_ ,” Chie said through grit teeth and a shark-like smile. “Stop winking all the time. One of these days Yokokawa’s going to beat your head in, you know?”

“He’s not that bad,” said the girl.

“Believe me, he’s _awful,_ ” said Chie.

“So,” said Yosuke, “babe, you still haven’t told me your name—”

He didn’t know how Chie managed it, but she managed to kick him, right in the kidneys. While sitting down.

“I was just _kidding_!” Yosuke wheezed.

“I think I should go now,” said the girl, with a strange smile. “I’ll see you later, Satonaka-san.”

“No, wait! I can explain. Yosuke’s normally not always—” The girl, whoever was she, smiled and waved in a way that Yosuke had seen too often. The “blowing you off, creeper” wave and smile technique. Ouch.

“There’ll always be—”

“You know something, Yosuke? Shut it. Just. Shut. It.” She glared at him, and then said, “Are you going to keep crashing all my dates like this?”

“Maybe,” he said. “Are you ever going to pay me back for those steaks?”

“When you stop trying to ruin all my dates by hitting on lesbians.” She hit him over the head, lightly, with the menu. Then she said, “Hey, what are you ordering?”

“You’re not leaving?” Yosuke said.

“Not when you’re picking up the tab.”

“I don’t have that much money!”

“Waiiiiiter, two steaks, please! This guy here will have vegetable tofu soup—”

“I hate tofu, and you know it—”

“—and can you get the beer menu out? Thanks.”

What had Yosuke ever done in a past life to deserve Chie? When he opened his mouth to protest, she said, “I’m paying for the beers.”

“Really?”

“So you’ll be too drunk to complain when the bill for the steaks come in,” she explained.

Headache. He had a huge, huge headache.


End file.
